A large signboard was erected last year in Ballard County, Kentucky. It reads ‘Monkey’s Eyebrow Home of Kelsey Waldon.’ No mean accolade for a State that in the past has honoured artists such as Loretta Lynn, Bill Munroe, Dwight Yoakam, Crystal Gayle, Keith Whitley and Tom T. Hall in a similar manner. It’s certainly something to be proud about.
‘Yes, very proud, that’s my hometown. Kentucky is very proud of all the talent that comes out of there. I grew up seeing signs like that everywhere around my home State. They’re just very proud people and they like to recognise their own. I’ve been doing this for a little while now and it feels nice to see that.’
I’m sitting with Kelsey in the downstairs bar at Whelan’s in Dublin. It’s late February and she is due to perform at the venue together with Sean McConnell and Garrison Starr. She is dressed in denim jeans and jacket and the customary cowgirl boots, which is in contrast to the glitzy nudie suit that she wore when I saw her on stage at 3rd & Lindsley at Americana Fest last September in Nashville.
‘That suit is at the dry cleaners’she informs me, laughing. ‘This is strictly a denim tour, no room in the suitcase for that suit,’ she adds. Her Kentucky drawl is fetching, almost musical, the spoken words identical to the natural and unfiltered accent that feature on her albums.
That appearance at Americana Fest was on the same bill as Tanya Tucker, playing to a full house. Other shows that week included a Jam In A Van session and guesting with J.P.Harris on his annual Sunday Morning Coming Down event. ‘We were everywhere at Americana last year, played almost every night and had that showcase on the same bill as Tanya Tucker. Awesome.’
It hasn’t been anything like an overnight success for Kelsey. She left her hometown in rural Kentucky as a teenager for the bright lights of Nashville in pursuit of fame and fortune. Unfortunately, her initial move did not go to plan and she returned to Kentucky. Older and somewhat wiser, her second journey to Music City was motivated by the opportunity to enrol at Belmont University. She subsequently majored in song writing and the business end of the music industry, together with working in bars and playing gigs wherever and whenever the opportunity presented itself.
‘That was a while back. The first time was difficult, I was working jobs and didn’t have much time to play anywhere and didn’t know anybody in Nashville at all. I was only 19 and too young to get work in bars, I played where they let me play. The second time around I just got into the right circles you know, met some of the right friends and progressed to playing in bars as I was old enough then to go to these places. I met the friends I needed to meet the second time there.’
Her career has progressed steadily and methodically ever since. She released her debut album THE GOLDMINE in 2014 and followed it with the excellent I’VE GOT A WAY two years later. The title of that album was a clear statement of intent. The no-holds-barred songs on it dealt with personal issues confronting her at that time.
WHITE NOISE/WHITE LINES, released last year, is equally intimate, an anthology of tales often inspired by her home state. Like its predecessors, it addresses her inner feelings and issues such as the contradictions encountered in her childhood, growing up in Kentucky and putting a bad relationship firmly behind her.
‘Half of the songs were written stuck in a cabin back home in Kentucky where I grew up and half of them were written in Nashville. Any record I’ve made, I don’t ever sit down and think it’s going to be this or that. They’re the songs that define me. I realised that I was honestly coming into my own with the new album. It’s me finding a serious sense of myself and making sense of the world around me too you know. Singing and song writing for me is just that. The songs all come in different ways. I can’t write when I’m on the road, touring for me is hard. I mightn’t write a song for two months and I’ll sit down when I get home from touring and I’ll be somewhere for a week and maybe write five songs, they just pour out of me. I think it does get harder to write as you get older and busier. It takes more discipline but the songs are always there, the ideas are always there, you just have to sit down and write it.’
WHITE NOISE/WHITE LINES was released on John Prine’s Oh Boy record label to favourable reviews both in the U.S.A and Europe. She can boast to be the first artist to be signed to that label for eighteen years. The album was recorded and produced in Nashville by Dan Knobler, who had previously worked with Kelsey’s close friends Erin Rae and Caroline Spence. With her own band members on the recording, Knobler creates a potent and raw sound, very much in keeping with her live performances. Acclaimed in many quarters for possessing one of the most distinctive and unique country voices – “One of the more authentic country voices I've heard in a long time” said John Prine – Oh Boy liked what they heard and supported the album.
‘I’d written it and we sat on it for a while until the timing was right. Things had to build up, we finally executed everything and got it rolling. John (Prine) and Fiona (Whelan) were supposedly big fans of the record I put out independently, I’VE GOT A WAY. Oh Boy had heard that record and I had known some of the people there for quite a while and they were always in my corner. I don’t think they were ready to sign another act back then and like I said, the timing was right with the new album. I was patient, I waited for the right moment and I got it.’
Kelsey is a member of a thriving community of female artists in Nashville that includes Margo Price, who like Kelsey, was no overnight success. Following numerous record label rejections, she struck the jackpot when Jack White’s Third Man Records released her debut album MIDWEST FARMER’S DAUGHTER, a career launching break. Is Kelsey’s backstory somewhat similar?
‘Margo and I are great friends, she was one of my first friends in Nashville. We’ve all had different paths, our journeys are seldom the same. No one tells you ‘here is how it’s going to happen.’ My peers just happen to be women but honestly the whole scene in Nashville is very supportive, I think It’s a myth that women are cut throat, there is room for all of us, men and women, especially in the country realms. Michaela Anne, Erin Rae and Caroline Spence are also all close friends of mine: we have a group text and talk most nearly every day when we’re on the road. That said, I’ve had a great team for a long time with plenty of muscle and having someone like John (Prine) endorse the album is really great for me. That worked a lot for me overseas, it got me press in the U.K. and Europe. I’m the same person that I’ve always been but I’m on a train right now and it’s gonna keep rolling and keep me busy until the end of the year.’
With Country Radio Stations for the best part ignoring female artists like Kelsey and her peers, gaining exposure can be challenging. It’s an issue that she’s quite realistic about.
‘Radio play should be based on the quality, not gender. I think that’s the most frustrating thing. There truly is no obvious argument, no reason at all why more women shouldn’t get played. It is unfair, back in the ‘90s and before, all the stars on Country Music Radio were women. I don’t think country radio really cares about quality anyway.’
Does Country Music Radio even care about music, or more likely just selling advertising?
‘Yeh, (laughs) I don’t think I’m one of those artists that really needs that airplay anyway. We get played on stations like Americana Radio and Independent Radio. Certain artists need the radio others don’t, it’s not needed all the time.’
The attendance at this evening’s show at Whelan’s is likely to be considerably less than the numbers Kelsey has become accustomed to. In recent years she has performed at The Grand Ole Opry, The Ryman and sharing stages with John Prine, Jamey Johnson and Willie Nelson to name but a few.
‘That’s the name of the game. I think people on the outside often feel that when you’re an artist and get signed to a label that you’ve got it made. It’s not like that. One day you’re playing The Grand Ole Opry or the Ryman, or your selling out somewhere, and the next week you might come to Dublin and there’s three people there. I say ‘we just play for whoever shows up’. It’s like starting all over again playing Ireland, you might be the only one here tonight (laughs).’
Since this interview, of course, Kelsey’s touring plans have had to be put on hold and the much-loved John Prine passed away on April 7 from Covid-19.
She is a focused, talented and discerning individual who has overcome the odds previously – and when things get back to some degree of normality, there is no doubt Kelsey has the drive and talent to continue her climb up that industry ladder.
Interview by Declan Culliton